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Agent experience

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To effectively meet the customer’s needs, support agents must be set up for success.

That means making an up-front investment in tools and

processes that enable support agents to provide the kind

of support customers love, while also avoiding the kind of

frustrating experiences that customer hate.

Agent experience focuses on improving the way agents interact

with customers.

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High growthAs a high-growth support organization, you have a

unique set of challenges and opportunities. Clearly,

something is working because you’re in high-growth

mode. The support you are providing is resonating

with your customers. But the demands are increasing,

too—as others continue to ask you time and time

again to do more in less time, straining your support

team and threatening your ability to maintain the

same level of quality, much less improve

It’s a difficult challenge, but not impossible.

Zendesk has compiled real-world support

strategies that have helped companies just like

yours—everything from hiring and training agents

to creating best-in-class support strategies to

providing great customer experiences.

This guide was designed with the high-growth

support team in mind and is here to help you take

your support to the next level.

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Ticket routingWithout ticket routing, many customer service

departments would descend into chaos. That’s

because there wouldn’t be a process in place to

ensure that each ticket goes to the person who’s

best suited to solve it.

T I C K E T R O U T I N G T E C H N I Q U E SHere are several techniques for high-growth

customer support teams:

Direct routing (Hunt groups)

Customers are given the option to reach

out to the specific department they wish

to speak with.

Least idle

Using an automated process, least idle

is a slightly more sophisticated routing

strategy in which calls are placed with

the agent who’s been waiting for a

ticket the longest.

Least occupied

The next ticket is sent to whoever has

been least utilized throughout the day.

Skills-based

Agents are assigned different skills and

skill levels for each skill assigned, and

tickets are assigned accordingly.

C O L L A B O R AT I V E S U P P O R TFor companies experiencing some of the headaches

of rapid growth, such as increasing tickets and

supporting multiple time zones, a collaborative

approach to support can be very helpful.

This includes:

• Assigning priorities to each ticket through

a triaging process (either automated or

manual), ensuring the most important tickets

are solved first

• Routing tickets to agents/groups best suited

to solving that ticket; or if the original agent

can’t solve the ticket, escalating it to another

agent

• Working as a group, reducing agent burnout

and customer wait times

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Feedback loopProviding a mechanism for customers to provide feedback, about both their individual

experiences and ways the organization can improve, is essential. But without a way

to follow up on that, customers won’t feel heard and you won’t be able to act on their

feedback. In this scenario, improving customer satisfaction isn’t feasible.

C L O S E D F E E D B A C K L O O PA closed feedback loop provides a way for customers

to communicate with the company, as well as a method

for collecting and learning from that feedback.

When used in an intelligent manner, the

closed-loop approach will:

• Increase customer and employee engagement.

• Quickly help identify opportunities and make

them more obvious.

• Set priorities based on customer needs.

• Promote company integrity in the eyes of its

customers.

• Generate a positive return on investment based

on research.

• Help drive product life cycle.

• Provide feedback to marketing and product

teams, by customer segmentation.

“At companies where strong customer feedback systems take hold, business-unit leaders and front-line employees start to own customer loyalty the same way they own their targets for revenue, profits, and market share.”

Customer

provides feedback

Feedback is automatically

collected and sorted

Feedback is sent

to the correct team/

individuals

Source

The company takes

action to remedy the

situation, including direct

communication with

the customer

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Internal self-serviceSelf-service isn’t just for customers; it’s also a valuable asset for agents. Having

access to organized, easy-to-find information makes it possible for agents to share

relevant information with customers, quickly resolving issues so they can move on

from one customer to the next.

S E L F - S E R V I C E A U D I T

Do you have an internal knowledge base (KB)?

Do you have online support for your agents?

Do agents have the ability to contribute to the

KB? If so, how?

Do you have guided scripting in place to

ensure that agents properly respond to

customers?

Do you have a portal where agents can view

their daily schedules, news, and events?

1. Determine the objectives of your knowledge

management implementation

For example, provide plenty of self-service

content for first-response agents to have

enough resources to successfully reduce the

number of escalated tickets.

2. Plan a successful implementation strategy

Form an implementation team (such as an

executive sponsor, KB owner, IT, writers), and

decide on a realistic roll-out plan.

3. Design clear processes Create guidelines for content development,

content categorization, and ongoing

management.

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G U I D E L I N E S F O R A S U C C E S S F U L I N T E R N A L K N O W L E D G E B A S E ( K B )

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H OW TO develop useful KB content

Each piece of content should

contain a single idea.

The style should be simple

and practical, with steps for

resolution explained logically

and concisely.

Rather than providing

exhaustive descriptions,

content should be as short

as possible and use a direct,

informal tone.

The content structure

should be uniform and use

a consistent vocabulary and

taxonomy.

Use a templated format, and

stick to it.

Always consider: What is the

customer trying to do? What

are they asking? What was

the customer experience that

drove the question?

Include contextual information,

such as the product, model,

revision level, etc.

Include the resolution—not just

how to fix the problem but the

underlying reason(s) for the

problem, as well.

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Key takeaways

Ticket routing enables high growth by helping support

organizations take a collaborative approach to customer

service and ensuring tickets get to the agents best suited

to resolve them.

Although many companies provide channels for

customers to provide feedback, too many fail to build

closed-loop feedback systems that learn from that

feedback and properly communicate with customers.

Use the same best practices that apply to customer

self-service to give agents easy access to the information

they need to quickly resolve customer issues.

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Achieving scaleAs a support team looking to achieve scale, you have

a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Your

organization has matured to the point that it is able to

deliver quality support to an ever-increasing number

of customers. You know that you are able to meet

those needs, but as the company moves to another

level of success, the deluge of customer interactions

is just around the corner. As your support structure

and strategies currently stand, you know there is no

way to meet future demand without finding a way to

scale and maintain a high level of quality.

It’s a difficult challenge but not impossible. Zendesk

has compiled real-world support strategies that

have helped companies just like yours, everything

from building career paths of agents to escalating

ticket management to benchmarking against

competitors.

This guide was designed for the support team

looking to achieve scale; it’s here to help you take

your support to the next level.

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Service-level agreements (SLA)A service-level agreement, or SLA, is an agreed upon measure of the average

response and resolution times that your support team delivers to your customers.

Providing support based on service levels ensures that you’re delivering measured

and predictable service. It also provides greater visibility when problems arise.

S L A S C A N H E L P YO U R T E A M SFollow policy: If your company has published

a standard for response or wait times, SLAs help

codify those standards by priority level so you can

track performance down to the minute and

prioritize accordingly.

Set team goals: Even if you don’t publicly declare your

SLAs, you may notice that a particular response time,

or wait time threshold, yields better CSAT numbers.

Use SLAs to set and track team goals.

Meet obligations: In some cases, you may sell a higher

tier of service or have a special class of customers with

support clauses written into their contracts. SLAs can

help you track these special cases, too.

Test promotions: Your marketing team might be

considering advertising a faster service window

than the competition. You can use SLAs to test your

response and wait times before officially launching

promotion.

Customer segmentation: Segment your customers

based on spending or company criteria to provide a

better customer experience based on a profile setting.

S L A S A N D YO U R W O R K F L O WSLAs are almost impossible to maintain without being

worked into your organization’s everyday workflow.

Here are some examples of ways to seamlessly

incorporate them:

• Organize all clients with relevant service levels,

and automatically route them through the

appropriate support workflow.

• Set up triggers to alert the team when an SLA is

due and automatically escalate priority tickets to

the top of queue.

• Set triggers for when an SLA is violated, setting

off a series of triggers that let the team and

managers know, subsequently enabling you

to create a report to keep track of your

monthly progress.

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Escalation managementNot all tickets were created equally. Some are easier

to solve than other. Some may indicate the presence

of larger issues or originate from VIP customers.

Ticket escalation helps you identify tickets that

require special attention and route them to the

appropriate agents.

R E A S O N S F O R H I G H E S C A L AT I O N R AT E SA high-escalation rate can indicate that systemic

issues must be resolved, such as:

• Your call center agents do not have the requisite

knowledge and understanding to handle

complaints, so they transfer too many calls to the

senior agents or higher support tiers.

• Your call center agents are not empowered to

give solutions to customers, so they transfer

most of the calls to someone in a higher position

of authority.

• Your call center agents are not quick enough

or clear enough to quickly resolve customer

complaints, leading to an increase in the load and

shifting calls to the seniors.

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B E S T P R A C T I C E SEscalation management is required to ensure this

process is handled properly and results in happier

customers and improved operational efficiencies.

Create a seamless triaging process

Define which tickets need

immediate attention.

Include all channels

Escalation should be offered in

as many appropriate channels as

possible, including email, SMS, social

media, and phone. The hours agents

are available to answer calls, emails,

or social media inquiries should be

clearly stated and response times

should be outlined when appropriate.

Build documentation

Escalation processes should be

regularly documented and reviewed

to ensure they are working in the best

interests of the client and customer.

Be process-driven

Processes should guide the call

handler to capture all relevant

information to enable follow-up staff

to respond effectively and efficiently.

Stick to SLAs

Ensure times taken from call receipt

to resolution are satisfactory and

that margin for error is reduced

wherever possible.

Work together

Collaboration between parties

using the ticketing system must

be seamless to allow for CRM and

database updates as calls are taken.

Contingency plans need to be in

place in case of system issues.

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Operations team establishedMany support organizations are only able to deal with

the growing complexity of their support operations

by establishing an operations team—one tasked with

formalizing, constituting, measuring, and improving

support operations.

O P E R AT I O N S T E A M F U N C T I O N SWithin the operations team, one or more individuals

should own different functions.

Workforce management (WFM)

WFM of staff scheduling improves time management;

it’s an integrated and demand-oriented way to

optimize staff scheduling. WFM incorporates:

• Demand-oriented workforce scheduling

and optimization

• Forecasting of workload and required staff

• Employee involvement in the scheduling process

• Management of working times and accounts

• Analysis and monitoring of the entire process

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Analyst

While many support leaders can glean high-level

information from simple metrics dashboards, a

dedicated analyst can dive into the numbers to

provide insight into what they mean and how they can

be used to improve operations.

Quality assurance (QA)

As discussed earlier, QA is necessary for monitoring

and maintaining high standards. Putting someone in

charge of QA allows them to focus on development

and implementation of strategy for internal teams

and BPO.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

While customer service can have a long-term impact

on a customer’s relationship with the company, it

actually tends to focus on short-term interactions.

CRM takes the long view, focusing on ways to build

and improve long-term relationships. The operations

teams should include people who focus on strategy

and support through this lens.

Training

The training function is responsible for ensuring

everyone is properly onboarded and given the skills

and tools necessary to be successful. This includes

everything from building out training documentation,

training other trainers, and developing business

process outsourcing (BPO) strategy and support.

G E T T I N G S TA R T E D W I T H YO U R O P E R AT I O N S T E A MBefore your build your support operations team, try to answer these questions:

What operations support functions do we have in place for our organization?

Do we have a dedicated team or person for training, QA, BPO, and technology?

Do we have a dedicated person for reporting (business intelligence)?

Does customer service have a seat at the product marketing table?

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Key takeaways

Service-level agreements help ensure that your support

organization maintains a predetermined standard of

support. It can be built into the daily workflow to ensure

they are being met.

Escalation management is crucial for helping support

organizations scale, as they ensure the most important

and/or difficult tickets are quickly answered by the best

agents for the task.

An operations team helps organizations scale by

reducing the increasing complexity of rapidly growing

and improving operational efficiencies.

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Driving efficiencyAs a support organization looking for efficiency, you

have a unique set of challenges and opportunities.

Your organization has effectively overcome the

challenges that typically plague less mature

support organizations. You have a robust team with

specialized roles that provides high-quality support.

Even though you are experiencing great success, you

can’t shake the nagging feeling that things could be

much better. Maybe support provided from a newly

opened international office isn’t performing as well as

you’d like, or change management still feels like it did

during the startup days. As your support structure and

strategies currently stand, you know you can’t rest

on past successes; instead, you must find a way to

improve even further.

It’s a difficult challenge, but not impossible. Zendesk

has compiled real-world support strategies that

have helped companies just like yours, with

everything from providing multi-product support to

using data to forecast different support scenarios.

This guide was designed with the support team

looking to drive efficiency, and it’s here to help you

take customer service to the next level.

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Multi-product supportTransitioning from a single-product to a multi-product

company can be daunting for a customer support

organization. The increasing complexity associated

with supporting more products will certainly will be a

challenge, but it’s not an unsolvable one, if you take

the time to set yourself up for success.

Divide the work into three sections, and focus on

enacting best practices for each:

Specialized agents Knowledge-centered

support

Reporting

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S P E C I A L I Z E D A G E N T SProviding multi-product support means you likely will

need to move away from solely relying on generalist

agents and start employing specialists: agents with

a particular area of expertise who are empowered to

solve tough issues within their focus.

Best practices

• Use a combination of single- and multi-skilled staff.

• Ensure strong workforce management processes

are in place.

• Use multi-skilling as a path for career progression.

Agents begin as generalists and become more

specialized as they progress. Let the agents define

the skill-sets they want to take.

• Build clear escalation paths for tickets.

K N O W L E D G E - C E N T E R E D S U P P O R T ( KC S )KCS treats knowledge as a primary organizing

principle for providing great support—something that

evolves and improves over time. Since you are now

providing support for new products, KCS is essential

for giving agents the information they need to solve

issues and giving customers access to self-service

options. As your multi-product support matures, you

will be able to use what you learn to further refine and

improve your KCS. This way, you’re always getting a

little better.

Best practices

• Write clear how-to documentation.

• Provide scripted or guided customer interactions

and troubleshooting so agents can consistently

provide great support.

• Ensure knowledge is consumable by everyone

at the company (including agents), as well as by

customers, if being used for service.

R E P O R T I N GSince you are embarking on a new venture, measuring

everything with detailed reporting is imperative. This

will allow you to make data-based decisions on how

to improve everything from agent performance to the

customer experience.

Best practices

• Create easy-to-read dashboards with details

about the most important data. Give access to all

stakeholders.

• Strategize around customer segmentation, so you

can slice the data by specific types of customers.

You might be providing relatively quick support

to all customers, but you’ll want to know if you’re

providing even quicker support to your VIPs.

• Slice by agent segmentation, too, since you are

now employing specialized agents.

• Take on the perspective of the customer with

customer journey reporting. Measure every

interaction and touchpoint so you can see where

things might be going wrong.

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Change management processChange can happen for all sorts of reasons, such

as migrating to new technologies or rolling out

organizational adjustments. When not handled

properly, it can lead to all kinds of disruptions that can

slow down productivity and eat away at resources.

Change management refers to the process, tools,

and techniques used to manage the human side of

change to achieve the required/desired business

outcome. Change management incorporates the

organizational tools that can be utilized to help

individuals make successful personal transitions,

resulting in the adoption and realization of change.

P R E PA R E F O R C H A N G EBefore you get started, take the time to answer

the import questions:

Where are we today?

Determine the current state of your

organization and what you already have

at your disposal.

• What’s our communication platform?

• Do we have buy-in on the changes?

• What is the escalation process?

• What’s the likely impact of change on

certain teams and individuals?

Where do you want to be 6 or 12 months

from now?

Next, take a look at the near-future.

• Will agents be responsible for more

activity? If so, how can you train them?

Finally, creating a road map of change.

• Can change lead to stress? If so, how

can that be mitigated?

• What’s the likely impact of stress

on agents?

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I N V O LV E T H E R I G H T P E O P L EEnsure that all stakeholders and participants are

aware of everything, particularly their roles.

Can we get buy-in from 50% of the organization

to drive large-scale change?

Consider using pilot groups as a low-risk way

of providing proof of concept.

Use department-wide change agents to

make sure each department is represented

in the process.

How do we engage a formalized network to take

on the change initiatives?

Provide weekly communications that include

updates and next steps.

Use a dedicated project room, ensuring

stakeholders always have a place to meet.

Offer “lunch and learn” meetings, where you

can make presentations about the change and

answer questions in real time.

How do current hierarchical and silo-based

structures help or hurt communication and

engagement?

Use this as an opportunity to break traditional

barriers and get the company working as a

cohesive unit.

Challenge cultural norms, if they’re acting as

roadblocks to successful change management.

Engage all areas of the business with regular

communication.

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Successful change management depends on

many people putting in a lot of hard work.

Don’t forget to celebrate the launch of your new initiative, as well as long-and short- term wins.

Wins are molecules of results. They must be

collected, categorized, and communicated early

and often to track progress and energize your

team to drive change.

Celebrate

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Key takeaways

Providing multi-product support can be challenging, but

properly training specialized agents, providing customer

self-service options, and conducting robust reporting

can help you work through the complexity, increase

efficiency, and ensure you are always providing high-

quality support for all products.

Major changes, such as organizational structure

overhauls, new product releases, or new technology

adoption can have a negative impact on productivity

and employee happiness. Proper preparation and

ongoing change maintenance can mitigate this and

help ensure that it’s a huge success.

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ConclusionThe process of improving customer service never

ends, so this guide is meant to be a big step in the right

direction. Even if you implement and master every tip

and strategy, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty,

and hire and train the best possible agents, there’s

always plenty of room for improvement.

We hope this guide has helped you understand that,

although it’s work-intensive, great customer service

is possible.

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